30/09/2026
Re-laying original Welsh stone slab using traditional materials.
Once the slabs were lifted, you can clearly see the original floor construction beneath — old natural lime-based mortar, coal/cinder material and traditional fill. What really stands out is just how bone dry everything is underneath.
This is a great example of how older buildings were designed to manage moisture rather than completely seal it out.
Lime mortar isn’t a magic product that simply “gets rid of damp.” Its benefit is that it is vapour permeable and moisture tolerant, allowing moisture to move through the building fabric and evaporate rather than becoming trapped behind dense, impermeable materials.
That’s why understanding the original construction is so important before treating damp in a traditional property. A damp patch at low level shouldn’t automatically mean “rising damp” and a chemical DPC. The source needs to be properly understood first — ground levels, drainage, leaks, ventilation, salts and inappropriate cementitious materials can all play a part.
Traditional building. Traditional materials. Let the building work as it was designed to.
Next stage: re-laying this original Welsh stone slab using a compatible traditional lime-based system.
